ADJUDICATION, JURISDICTION AND NATURAL JUSTICE

AWG Construction Services Ltd v Rockingham Motor Speedway Ltd [2004] EWHC 888 (TCC), 5 April 2004

In AWG Construction Services Ltd v Rockingham Motor Speedway Ltd [2004] EWHC 888 (TCC), 5 April 2004 Judge Toulmin CMG, QC ordered that a decision of an adjudicator be set aside on the ground that the adjudicator lacked the jurisdiction to make the decision which he had made and on the ground that the adjudicator had violated the principles of natural justice. Nevertheless, Judge Toulmin ordered that part of the decision be enforced on the ground that, where the parties have agreed that three discrete claims can be heard together, the decisions on those claims which are not subject to challenge should be enforced immediately. Judge Toulmin also drew attention to the complexity of the issues which had been referred to the adjudicator and to the amount of money which the parties had expended on the adjudication (in excess of £1 million) and questioned whether the legislator had intended that adjudication should be used in this type of case. He repeated these concerns in his judgment in McAlpine PPS Pipeline Systems Joint Venture v Transco plc [2004] All ER (D) 145 (May), discussed below at p. 5, and we shall consider these comments in the context of the discussion of the latter case.